Tablets are great if you're constantly on the go and don't want to lug around a laptop. However, they're not as much of a necessity as a smartphone is, so not everyone would want to spend an arm and a leg on a secondary working device. That's where budget tablets come in—but are they really worth it?
Well, that's what we set out to find out with the HONOR Pad 9, and here's what we think.
Editor
Jennifer chevron_right
Table of Contents
Design
The HONOR Pad 9 boasts a modern design with its large 12.1-inch display and a 16:10 aspect ratio, encased in a sleek aluminium unibody that is just 7mm thin. On the whole, it gives a nice feel in hand, and the aluminium back is nice and fingerprint-proof.
The HONOR Pad 9 is available in three colour variants: Gray, Blue, and White. Our review model was in Blue, which is nice and eye-catching, though the colour doesn’t really matter if you’re going to use the tablet with the Smart Bluetooth Keyboard—which we did.
The display is framed by relatively large bezels, the top part of which houses the front-facing cameras. On the back, the rear camera sits large and eye-like in the top centre of the tablet. I can’t say that this is my favourite design choice—it just reminds me of insects’ eyes, somehow, but that’s wholly subjective.
Display
On the front, the HONOR Pad 9 sports a large 12.1” display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is a little different from the 16:9 ratio that I’m used to on the iPad I regularly use. I must say, though, this particular aspect ratio, which is getting employed more and more in laptops, is great for media consumption as it gives the feeling of a bigger display than it physically is.
One thing to note is that the HONOR Pad 9 comes with an anti-glare coating on the display, which works out great for various lighting conditions. The display is also bright enough to remain readable even under direct sunlight.
Performance
Under the hood, the HONOR Pad 9 is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, which isn’t the most powerful chipset but still serves well if you’re just using the tablet for general productivity tasks like browsing or note-taking. It can handle a fair bit of multitasking, especially thanks to HONOR’s Multiwindow and Sidebar features.
For what it’s worth, the tablet has pretty great graphics for watching movies and light video editing. However, if you’re looking for a tablet that can run really graphic-demanding tasks, it would be best to look elsewhere.
The HONOR Pad 9 is equipped with an 8,300 mAh battery, delivering over 8 hours of active use on a single charge, which should suffice for most daily needs.
Smart Bluetooth Keyboard & Pencil
Now, it is great that the HONOR Pad 9 came with a tailor-fitted keyboard folio case, though as mentioned above, the case completely covers the design of the tablet. But who needs colours when you have keyboards, right?
HONOR’s Smart Bluetooth Keyboard is pretty small and compact, essentially a compressed TKL keyboard. The keys are shallow, which is understandable considering its thickness, but they still give a pretty satisfying clicking sound when typing. They’re also well-spaced, so the typing experience is great all around.
Unfortunately, I do have my gripes about it. The keyboard connects via Bluetooth, so it’s basically always on whether you have the tablet in “laptop” mode or not. That means that when you have the keyboard folded to the back while you use the tablet, you’ll inevitably press on the keys and cause mistouches or mistypes. Another thing about the keyboard is that it requires separate charging. That means another thing to think about while working on the go.
The HONOR Pad 9 also comes with a free HONOR Choice Pencil. I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of the pencil, and I won't see myself using it much, especially since it's not magnetic and there is nowhere to store the Pencil with the tablet. That means it's going to disappear rather quickly. Like the Smart Keyboard, it also requires separate charging.
Usage-wise, though, it's actually not too bad. it has decent palm rejection and minimal latency, which makes writing on the tablet quite a breeze. The Pencil itself is lightweight, and the controls are intuitive: just one button on the side to switch between writing modes.
